Unlike South Pacific, which hadn't been seen on Broadway since its original staging until LCT brought it back in 2008, The King and I has been a frequent visitor — mainly because Brynner, who knew a meal ticket when he saw it, kept bringing it back. The most recent Broadway production, however, in 1996, starred Lou Diamond Phillips and Donna Murphy won her second Tony for the performance.

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An alternate title for The King and I might have been The Many Wives Club. For now, we'll have to make do with The First Wives Club, a new musical adaptation of the 1996 comedy.

The show will premiere in Chicago next spring, prior to an anticipated Broadway arrival during the 2015-16 season, producers announced June 30. The musical will have a new book by Emmy nominee Linda Bloodworth Thomason, the writer best known for the sitcom "Designing Women" and for being an FOB (Friend of Bill Clinton).